Re: First time Ada has let me down

[Keith Thompson <kst@cts.com>]

Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> writes:
[...]
> "typecasting"? No such thing in Ada. Integer types are convertable to each
> other, but that's a simple operation that generates *no* code (except
> sometimes a range check, which you can disable if you need to). A record rep
> clause does seem a good way to go, but there are probably others.

A conversion from a smaller to a larger signed integer type is likely
to require code to do the sign extension; likewise zero extension for
modular types.  Also, any conversion with differing sizes may require
code to copy the bits from one object to another, though this might be
optimized out depending on how the result is used.  (OTOH, the copying
is often considered part of an assignment, not part of the conversion
itself.)

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@cts.com  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center           <*>  <http://www.sdsc.edu/~kst>
Welcome to the last year of the 20th century.